German Association Raise Concerns Over Unlicensed Sportsbooks
The German gambling governing body has published a new lengthy report addressing rising concerns around the number of unlicensed sportsbooks in the country. This has been a massive revelation in the country’s online betting market as the awareness around the topic has been previously undocumented. Across Europe, many other countries are beginning to turn their attention to the number of sportsbooks without a license and the negative affect it has on the whole sector. To deal with this large-scale problem, the German governing body has appointed a new task force to oversee new sanctions and legal threats to any unregulated platform currently in operation.
German officials have been on high alert after a new report revealed the full-scale problem of unregulated sportsbooks and how they have negatively charged the market with foreign illegal money. ©FelixMittermeier/Pixabay
The German governing body has been hard at work to install a proper taskforce to oversee the regulation of the online black market which has been causing economic havoc over the last few years. Due to a lack of accounting and official tax returns, there is no way of telling the amount of money that has changed hands between a lot of the firms operating in this sphere. This has made the government extremely anxious as they do not want other legitimate firms to fall into the same trap and make illegal profit. A strong message is being sent to deter any new sportsbooks from bypassing the licensing process.
The German Government are now in charge of a fully discreet team of developers and legal representatives who are able to track down unlicensed sportsbooks and make sure they either go through the process or they will be removed entirely. In some cases, if the platform domain is registered outside of Germany then they may be unable to take down the site, in that case they will be able to impose sanctions upon them. These will include tax audits as well as revenue restrictions that could force the company to close if they’re’ under too much financial pressure.
A sizeable mass of the German market is controlled by unregulated sportsbooks, and this poses a great threat to the future of the industry. To ensure the safety of players across the country and security of their data, the standard of online platforms must be high, and the transparency of the data collected is highly important to register whether the business is legitimate or fake. The pandemic has only made matters worse as many platforms were forced to close due to financial limitations, and in their place a number of illegal betting sites popped up to fill the gap in the market.
DSWV Raises Alert Level
According to numerous sources from the report, the financial amount of bets placed is roughly $12.7 billion post-pandemic. This has been a 34% increase from the pre-pandemic levels and the amount of money involved in online betting means that criminal organizations are using it as a revenue stream as domains are easy to purchase and install. It’s become even more profitable than drug trafficking and other illegal money-making schemes and syndicates are able to escape prosecution as governing bodies across Europe do nothing to prevent them from operating.
The president of Germany’s governing body is increasingly on edge in an attempt to convince government officials to assist the industry with taking down the infectious spread of unregistered online gambling setups. The problem is wide spread across Europe. Poland have made a conscious effort to fine unlicensed sportsbooks to deter other platforms from following a similar path. Much more action is needed across Europe if the continent really wants to eradicate this problem from the industry as it can significantly damage the long-term economic stability of the sector.
